Thursday, January 31, 2013

Maybe Gov. Pat McCrory is what House Speaker Thom Tillis needs to achieve one of his top priorities: Paying $50,000 each to people who were forcibly sterilized by the state. Tillis, a Republican, passed such legislation through the House last year, but it died in Sen. Phil Berger's Senate.

Now, a Republican is in the governor's office, and McCrory says the compensation is a high priority for him as well. If basic principle isn't enough to persuade fellow Republican Berger to let the bill through, perhaps the McCrory-Tillis duo can work out some behind-the-scenes horse-trading to make it happen.

Tillis deserves complete credit for keeping the possibility alive. He is the chief sponsor of a bipartisan bill filed Wednesday that would pay the $50,000 lump sum to survivors of the invasive program the state carried out for decades. It's one of only three bills Tillis expects to file all session, signifying its importance to him.

Berger was noncommittal when asked about the proposal earlier this month. It seems he doesn't understand, as Tillis does, that few things violate small-government conservatism more than state government invading its citizens' bodies, often against their will. North Carolina's program, which ran for 45 years until 1974, was one of the nation's most aggressive. The state deemed certain individuals "feeble-minded" and sterilized them so they wouldn't procreate. It was inhumane and is a stain on North Carolina's history. Compensating the few remaining living victims is a minimal nod to that fact.

McCrory's spokesman told the Winston-Salem Journal in August that McCrory is fully supportive of the compensation and "would like to see it happen as soon as possible." The Journal said the spokesman reiterated that stance shortly before the legislature convened.

The Dixiecrats of yore are now republicans and libertarians. Don't try to pin this on a current party.

You really want to pin this on Libertarians? Really? Just so you know, all those Democrats down east, like Perdue and Easley, had parents and grandparents who were Democrats. The same Democrats who ruled, not governed, North Carolina for 100 years. The did not change parties, they have always had the power. Just because some new carpetbaggers thought to add blacks to the voter rolls, they did not care, more power for them.

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The Observer's editorial board cares deeply about Charlotte and the Carolinas, and has a problem with public officials who have forgotten that they report to citizens. Editorial page editor Taylor Batten and associate editors Peter St. Onge and Eric Frazier tackle politics and public policy issues locally, across the state and nation. Kevin Siers tackles those issues too in cartoons. Read their columns and biographical information on the CharlotteObserver.com Opinion page.